Bates, an 18-year-old who will start his freshman year at Oklahoma University this month, knew it was uncharacteristic of Trey to flood him with winking faces--a popular emoticon used to color text-based IM conversations. His suspicions grew when the alias george.w.bush@whitehouse.gov suddenly flashed on his screen along with an invitation to accept an attached file called choke.exe. Unlike his friend, who obviously had been bitten by a virus, Bates knew better than to accept it.

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